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Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has emphatically denied allegations that she shot her neighbor’s dog and said the man who did was justified in killing the pet after it attacked several of her goats.
‘I’ve never shot any dog – ever,’ the avid gun-rights supporter told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview on Monday.
Her denial came after Yaritza Mendoza, a 21-year-old neighbor in Silt, Colorado, went on Facebook to accuse Boebert of killing her two-year-old husky, Omega.
‘On August 17, 2022 you took my best friend away with the “power” of your gun,’ Mendoza wrote.
The young woman said it had taken her two months to come forward because she needed to ‘find the courage to want to publicly talk about the emotional trauma you caused me along with many others.’
Lauren Boebert holds Dolly, a goat she bottle-fed from birth and which she says was killed by Yaritza Mendoza’s Saint Bernard in October last year
Boebet supplied DailyMail.com of video of her comforting Liberty, a goat that was attacked by the husky, Omega
Mendoza posted pictures of her huskies on her Facebook page, saying: ‘Omega, just like any dog, had a wild instinct to hunt’
‘I did not find out from you that you killed her,’ she continued. ‘I found out from the authorities who also handed me a citation for a “Dog at large” along with the devastating news.’
‘Any decent and human person would have grab my dog and had a conversation with her owner about the situation. Yet you decided to grab her, shoot her, then dump her far from the house,’ she added.
Mendoza even blamed Boebert’s family, saying that Omega had been taken to the enclosure where the goats were housed by the congresswoman’s son. She said the dog viewed the area as ‘a familiar property.’
Mendoza ended on a political note, stating, ‘I hope as elections are coming up that people can learn and realize how heartless you truly are. The world is filled with corrupt power hungry people just like you. We shouldn’t be giving people like you the position of ‘power’ in which you’re in. Yet unfortunately here you are.’
She signed her message ‘Sincerely, Omegas Bestfriend.’
But when contacted by the DailyMail.com, Mendoza wouldn’t stand by her own posting.
Asked whether Boebert had shot her dog, she told DailyMail.com, ‘I’m not sure, I need to figure that out.
‘I need to take a step back for a second,’ she said while avoiding further questions. ‘I’m not ready to release anything to media sources.’
Boebert often carries a gun when she is speaking at political rallies. She is pictured in June speaking at a party for her re-election bid. She is facing a tougher-than-expected fight against Democrat Adam Frisch
Yaritza Mendoza said her husky Omega was ‘not a violent dog’ and Boebert knew that because she allowed her son to play with her
Local police and the district attorney’s office also refuted Mendoza’s claim.
‘I can assure you it wasn’t Lauren Boebert who shot the dog,’ a spokesperson for the Garfield County sheriff’s office told DailyMail.com.
The congresswoman said it was her neighbor Brady Hogan who killed Omega, and only after the dog and another husky owned by Mendoza attacked three of her goats.
‘They were viciously attacked at the neck and at their rear end,’ Boebert said. ‘Two dogs at each end on each goat.’
‘Her dogs had been going all throughout the neighborhood, killing chickens and turkeys and cats and other goats, and harassing other livestock,’ she added. ‘So (Hogan) went in there and neutralized the threat.’
Boebert, 35, pointed out that Hogan shot another of Mendoza’s dogs last October, after it killed a half dozen other animals in the neighborhood, including her own.
Colorado – like most states – allows dogs to be killed for attacking livestock. The law says: ‘Any dog found running, worrying, or injuring sheep, cattle, or other livestock may be killed, and the owner or harborer of such dog shall be liable for all damages done by it.’
And, according to Boebert, Mendoza still has a third dog that the congresswoman says is ‘terrorizing the neighborhood’.
‘She has a husky that is still getting into my goat pen and other people’s goat pens, and I know that calls have been made and there are witnesses throughout the neighborhood,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘He got to one of my goats a couple days ago, leaving a gash on his leg.’
Mendoza posted a lengthy screed on her Facebook page saying she has taken two months to go public with her accusation, saying she is ‘no longer scared’ of the right-wing firebrand congresswoman
Boebert responded with her own tweet defending Hogan for killing Omega
‘This is a very dog friendly community,’ she continued. ‘And many dogs roam, and people know everybody’s animals. We unfortunately got to know Yari’s dogs in a very bad way.’
Hogan, 51, confirmed Boebert’s account.
‘My girlfriend showed me the (Mendoza) social media posting yesterday and I was aghast at that, especially given the rampage that woman’s dogs have been on,’ Hogan told DailyMail.com.
‘She’s making herself sound like a victim and saying that Lauren had shot the animals, and that’s not the case at all.’
‘I spoke to police on both occasions and told them I killed the dogs – a Saint Bernard the first time and a husky the second time,’ he said.
‘The animals were both on Lauren Boebert’s property at the time I shot them, but she wasn’t involved at all.
‘The first go around, Lauren wasn’t even in the state. The second time, they were here, but not at home. I heard what was happening and couldn’t get a hold of anybody, so I just jumped the fence and went up there and shot the dog.’
‘This had been going on for quite some time,’ Hogan continued.
He said he had initially shot at the dogs with a BB gun in an attempt to scare them off, But that didn’t work.
Boebert owned a restaurant called Shooters in Rifle, Colorado, which encouraged diners to pack hear. It closed in July after the landlord decided not to renew her lease
Staff at Boebert’s former restaurant were armed, in keeping with Boebert’s strong support for Second Amendment rights
The drama occurred at Boebert’s ranch in Silt, Colorado, three hours west of Denver
‘I had shot at those dogs in broad daylight with a BB gun, just wanting to chase them off. But that wasn’t cutting it anymore, and they were still attacking, killing goats. I have a herd of goats and so does the congresswoman.
‘And the dogs started slaughtering goats and that was when I had to actually take their lives.’
He suspects the Facebook posting, circulated online, is a political hit job.
‘None of this came before, not until a few weeks before the election,’ Hogan said. ‘It seems ridiculous because I explained what happened.
‘I’m sure this is all happening because of the election season,’ he said.
‘Here’s the catch. I’m not a huge supporter of Lauren Boebert, but I border their property and we have a shared interest in these animals. When this all happened, if nobody was there to stop it, those dogs would have continued to kill all our goats.’
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